Hard Answers
It is received right after the completion of Speaking With Silence. Objectives *Speak with Enthir *Speak with Calcelmo at the Understone Keep in Markarth *Gain Entry to Calcelmo's Museum **''(Optional) Obtain key to Calcelmo's Museum'' *Obtain Calcelmo's Falmer Translating Guide *Duplicate the writing on Calcelmo's Stone *Return to Enthir *Speak to Karliah Walkthrough #Speak to Enthir at the Inn of Winterhold. #Travel to Markarth and speak to Calcelmo at Understone Keep . He will not provide a translation of the book. The player must enter Calcemo's Museum to complete the quest. #Obtain the key to Calcelmo's Museum by #*Completing the side quest to kill Nimhe, a giant frost spider. #*Persuasion/intimidation if the player's skill is high enough #*Completing the Book of Love quest. This opens additional dialogue to obtain the key. #*Stealing the key. It's located on the Alchemy table behind him. #*Picking the lock on the museum door. #*NOTE: Killing Nimhe avoids comments from the guard at the entrance and hostility from the guards in the first room. #Go to the East wing of the Keep and enter the Museum. The guard at the door will tell the player they're not allowed in if the side quest wasn't completed but the guard will let the player continue without further action. #Explore the first room. Use the sneak skill to steal or the guards will turn hostile. This area contains many common Dwemer artifacts and books in display cases (expert lockpicking). One of the Stones of Barenziah and a chest (expert lockpicking) is located In the room behind the gate to the left, #Make your way up to Calcelmo's Laboratory, from now on you will want to sneak because Calcelmo restricted the laboratory from you and guards will not like seeing you in restricted areas. In the laboratory in an area to the left there is a journal and Spider Control Rod that are worth picking up. After a few moments there will be a guard that will walk through the other two doorways opening them up for the player. Guards seem to be on a set path so try to learn their movements and move around them. #The doorway on the left is barred so you have to take the right path. Find, pickpocket, or pick the master lock into the next area of the laboratory. Two guards will be talking and eventually travel down a hallway. #*Alternately, there is a pullbar on a column near where the two guards walk. Pulling the bar activates a spinning blade trap which can be used to kill the guards completely unnoticed. #You can either follow the guards and sneak by to get to the staircase to the next area, or go the opposite path and get to the stairway. Going the opposite way of the guards will lead you to a hallway filled with a gas that will kill you fast if you go into it. Opposite the hallway is a button that you need to step on to clear the path and run through before the gas fills the room again. You can leave an object from your inventory on top of the button to remove the gas. The Argonian Histskin power can completely negate the damage from the gas. NOTE: Poison resistance does not make you immune to this damage. #You'll come to a room with a patrolling guard and Calcemo's nephew Aicantar sitting on a chair in front of a table. At the end of the floor you're entering is a valve that you can activate. An explosion will happen that will kill the guard and make Aicantar flee so you're able to pass and head up to the Tower. If the previous room's guards are still alive they will run into the room after the explosion. #Continue along through the next couple of doorways until you see the door leading to the wizard's balcony. In this room there is a Larceny Target called the Dwemer Puzzle Cube, which should be taken to Delvin Mallory for some gold. #When you reach Calcelmo's Tower make your way up to Calcelmo's Stone. You will need a roll of paper and charcoal, which are found in abundance in the room before reaching the stone tablet, before activating the stone. #Once you receive the rubbing, Aicantar, 2 guards and the City Captain will enter the tower and you will hear their conversation. His nephew insists that somebody is trying to sabotage his uncle's research, and demands that the guard searches the tower from top to bottom. #*If you kill Calcelmo's nephew he may have a staff that can command dwarven spiders. If not, try to sneak to the staircase below you on your left, climb up and jump on to the torch nearest to the wall. Leap to the ledge that leads to the exit. (Note: The staff (Spider Control Rod) can be found upon first entrance to Calcemo's Laboratory through the first door on the left, but must be stolen. If taken, Calcemo's nephew will not have another copy of the staff.) #*If you have high enough Magicka and Illusion, it's possible to neutralize all 4 hostiles using one or two Pacify area spells. After they are neutralized, you can simply walk out the door and down the waterfall. #*Killing the guards and Calcelmo's nephew seems to give no bounty. #*Once you get out of the room with Calcelmo's nephew you will be back out on the balcony between the tower and the museum. You will find you cannot fast travel from that point despite being outside. If you want to avoid sneaking through the museum again (provided you stole the key rather than earning it), you can squeeze between a rock on your left as you are looking at the tower staris and a wall. Follow this down to a nice view of the waterfall and drop into the pool below. Your compass will point in this direction, implying that it was the path you were supposed to use to escape. You will be back in Markarth. #Head back down to Markarth. #Return to Enthir and Karliah at The Frozen Hearth's cellar in Winterhold. Journal Entry upon completing the quest After Enthir successfully translated Gallus's journal, I've discovered that Mercer's motivations transcend simple greed or murder. As a member of The Nightingales, Mercer was tasked with guarding a place called The Twilight Sepulcher, the Temple of Nocturnal. According to Gallus, he defiled the Temple and betrayed the Thieves Guild. Karliah insists that we bring this information to Brynjolf immediately. Rewards *Nightingale Blade, given to you by Karliah, previously owned by Gallus Desidenius. Notes *For a player with a low Sneak, a plethora of Invisibility Potions is almost a requirement. *It is not crucial to sneak once past the initial section of the museum; the guards do not seem to incur a bounty and are not very difficult to kill. Choosing to simply hack through them is an option. They each drop a set of steel armor and 30-50 . *In Calcelmo's Tower, it is not necessary to go around and up through the Store. Use Whirlwind Sprint to cross the ledge to the stone, then retrieve the writing materials from the room just past it and then record the translation. *It is possible to skip going right by opening the barred door using a bug: keep swaying left to right of the barred door, if doing it right, the 'activate door bar' flash briefly instead of 'open door', after spamming the button, you'll hear the door bar rise and allow the door to open to allow the player to pass through quickly and easily. This will still allow the Dwemer Puzzle Cube to be obtained. *When initially confronted by the guards in the beginning of the museum, the option "I would rather die than surrender!" can be chosen, run around the guards and into the next area. Run through the next area and the entire level to the balcony, they will not be able to follow. This makes it possible to save about 30 minutes of sneaking and run through the level. *Once you have completed the quest - immediately upon exiting Calcelmo's tower there is a narrow path leading to Markarth’s waterfall – drop down it to make a quick exit. *Invisibility potions are useful at critical moments. *The translation key is inscribed on a stone. It must be duplicated with a Roll of Paper and piece of Charcoal, which can be found on nearby tables. *If the key from '''Calcelmo has not been received, a good amount of sneaking is required once gaining access to the Dwemer Museum. A good way of getting past all the guards is to start sneaking immediately and head towards the left. While the two guards are talking sneak by to the left. Be cautious as there is a third guard watching the entrance to the next area. Continue to sneak as the third guard looks away and patrols the area. *If encountering a guard and don't want to go to jail, kill him without a bounty added by conjuration spells to do the killing. However a Dremora summoned using the Sanguine Rose does cause a bounty to be added. *Another way to avoid a bounty being added is to sneak and use archery to avoid being seen by the guards and allow a follower (used Aela the Huntress) to do any final killing if needed and just remaining hidden until all the guards are dead. *There is a Larceny Target, the Dwemer Puzzle Cube, in Calcelmo's Laboratory. *Another way to obtain Calcemo's Key to the Museum is to defeat the giant frost spider Nimhe inside the Nchuand-Zel Excavation Site. This method will not make the guards in the Museum portion hostile, initially. *Upon picking up Aicantar's Spider Control Rod, Aicantar's Spider will spawn in the room, non-hostile toward the player. It is very easily destroyed by either the player or nearby guards. It cannot be revived. *Enthir's dialogue after the player gives him the rubbing has a typo, he says 'understand' instead of 'understand'. *There is also an easier way of doing this quest if a Werewolf. Simply gain legitimate access to the first part of the Dwarven museum so no guards will attack while not in sneak mode. Once inside proceed to the door that is locked that leads to the second part of the museum is not permitted. Pick the lock and go inside. Once inside, transform into a Werewolf and go on a rampage. There are several people that will need to be killed but with the Howl they should run away. Once they are all dead, follow the quest marker to the door to outside, go through that. Once outside go right and up to the tower. In the tower the tablet is in the middle of room and high up but fairly easy to reach. When up near the tablet, wait until the transformation wears off and then grab the roll of paper and charcoal. Copy it down and guards will come through the door, wait until none are near the door and jump down in front of the tablet and simply sneak out. Once back outside, either sneak back through the museum or scale down the mountain. Complete the quest normally without guards following or having any bounty. *An additional route to sneaking through Calcelmo's Laboratory is to use the various traps within the area. If used properly, they can neutralize all guards without alerting them of the player's presence or gaining a bounty. Each trap is activated by a valve, and each valve is located within a different part of the laboratory. When first entering the laboratory the first trap will be a poison dart trap located in front of a closed door. To use that trap look on the right side of the column that stands in front of that door. The next valves will be in the room that the closed door leads to; one will be on the left hand side of the room and the other on the right. The valve on the right will release explosive ballistics that fire into the wall/column opposite of the valve (wait until the guard/s is/are in place as this trap is a oneshot). The valve on the left will activate a trap similar to spiked iron fence trap (the trap itself is located in front of the door used to enter the room -which means baiting the guards into this trap as well). After clearing out this area there will be a staircase that leads up to a hallway with a path to the left and a path forward. While the valve for the next trap is located down the end of the left path, this path is blocked by guards so take the forward path. The path forward will lead down a staircase to a hallway full of poison gas; in order to make it through without dying, duel-wield heal (do this while sneaking or the guards will be alerted). After getting past the poison hallway, there will be a staircase which leads up to the other side of the hallway blocked by guards along with the valve to activate the next trap. This valve will trigger a set of three rotating propeller blades killing any and all guards located in the hallway. After using the propeller trap, continue by taking the next staircase up. The next area has no traps to activate, sneak kill the two guards in that room. There is one last hallway with a barred door on the left. Sneak all the way down this short hallway and activate the valve straight in front of you. This valve will activate several flame traps and propellers blades that will either frighten or kill all security in the next room. :*Updated. When sneaking through, instead of going down the poison hallway, drag one of the dead Markarth Guard bodies back, a follower or the spider (if still alive) to sit on the pressure plate to access the poison hallway. Much quieter, requires an added amount of patience. Good for the role-playing types, for reality would dictate careful choice. *Completing this quest unlocks Enthir as a fence and if the Dragonborn chooses to join the College of Winterhold, they can sell stolen items to him. Bugs *If you complete Calcelmo's favor of killing the Frostbite Spider Nimhe, and then gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum and obtaining Calcelmo's key ''after ''completion of this quest. You may get the quest a second time. Note, that also means you can get the Nightingale Blade a second time. However, this may cause problems with the quest Darkness Returns (may be unable to finish), therefore it's best not to do it a 2nd time. *If you complete Calcelmo's favor of killing Frostbite Spider Nimhe, and then gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum and you persuaded him to let you in for helping him with his love interest it is possible that you will get this quest a second time the next time you return to the museum, and Gallus's Journal will be 'bugged' in your inventory as a quest item. The quest is unable to be complete on the second run do to the final door at the top of the tower being closed and your key no longer working. *If you entered Mercer's house and looted Mercer's Plans before completing the quest Hard Answers, The Pursuit will not initiate upon completion of the quest Hard Answers. This can be fixed (on the PC) by resetting the quest Hard Answers to the last stage with the command TG06 70, dropping the item Mercer's Plans from your (Misc) inventory, and then talking to Karliah and completing the quest again. Do not pick up Mercer's Plans from wherever you dropped them until the quest The Pursuit is on the stage: Discover evidence of Mercer's location. (i.e. after you break into his house, simply leave and go pick back up Mercer's Plans) ** Be sure to drop Mercer's Plans from the misc section of your inventory before speaking with Karliah and Enthir after retrieving Calcelmo's notes. DO NOT pick up Mercer's Plans until you successfully break into his house in the mission "The Pursuit". *For an unknown reason, if you want to speak with Enthir at the end of the quest, he doesn't want to talk with you. Use the autosave when you got into the building and it'll be good. (Does not work the autosave, you can´t talk to Enthir if you are currently doing the quest Staff of Magnus and Savos Aren is dead''', first finish this quest and then return to Enthir). *For an unknown reason, if you gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum, a guard will stop you and initiate the "The Forsworn Conspiracy" dialogue, "Halt you are under arrest for conspiracy and murder..." Any response chosen leads to an infinite dialogue loop where you can neither submit to the guards nor pay off the bounty resulting in a permanent 1000 bounty in the Reach and getting stuck into the dialogue loop every time a guard sees you. (Note that the bug only appeared after the quests "The Forsworn Conspiracy" and "No One Escapes Cidnha Mine" and upon entering the museum killing the guard.) **Fixed after **1.04/2.03 Patch** 11/02/2012 I went to he shrine of Talos and the Markarth guards weapons and shields where still there (I killed them during The Forsworn Conspiracy ) I took the weapons and shields and removed them from the Shrine of Talos and got rid of them, completed the quest and had a 1050 Bounty that i was able to pay off. **(PS3 Confirmed)** * At the end of the quest, after Karliah tells you to meet her at the Ragged Flagon, Karliah will usually leave the room. However, sometimes she does not and stays in the cellar of the Frozen Hearth forever. Trying to talk to her will only trigger a small quote from her. The quest marker will still lead you to the Ragged Flagon, where all characters stand with weapons' drawn asking why you brought Karliah with you, even though she is not present. It is impossible to continue with any Thieves Guild quests if this happens, and the only solution is to reload a savegame from before you brought Enthir the notes on translating Gallus' Journal. *After insciribing the information on the stone, if you stealth past the three NPC's that enter the room, you are able to complete the quest as normal but the quest stage will bug, causing the mission Trinity Restored to bug and be impossible to complete as Karliah and Brynjolf will not appear at the Nightingale Cave. You will also not receive the Nightingale Blade as a reward from the quest. You can attempt to fix this by typing "setstage TG06 200" which will complete the quest Hard Answers. Fast travel to Nightingale hall and wait 24 hours and she should appear. *If you have previously sneaked into Calcelmo's Laboratory and stolen the Falmer Translation Guide before this quest begins, it may be uncompletable. *For whatever reason, followers that you have with you while entering the museum illegitimately will say "You're not supposed to be in here!" when attempting to talk to them, instead of their usual dialogue. I first noticed this with Lydia, after commanding her to take multiple Dwemer artifacts. At first, she acted normally, but she eventually just stopped talking to and following me. This makes it impossible to get her out of the museum, as when commanding her to go through a door, she simply says "Can't do that, sorry." It is possible to get them to sort of follow you by ordering them to do something by holding the interact button while looking at them. You may have to be a certain distance away to get them to do this. While they will STILL not leave, or talk to you, you can get them nearer to a door, rather than waiting for them to walk to the door by themselves. **FIX** To get your follower out of the museum, attack him/her enough times to get her to leave your service. He/she will usually make their way to the nearest door, at which time, they will leave. Afterwards, follow them out, and then ask them to rejoin your service. SAVE before this, just in case you accidentally kill them/get them to attack you. If this does not work, you might have to kill your follower, and acquire a new one. Appearances *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Category:Skyrim: Quests Category:Skyrim: Thieves Guild Quests